- Herbert Coleridge
Herbert "Herbie" Coleridge (
October 7 ,1830 -April 23 ,1861 ) was a Britishphilologist , technically the first editor of what ultimately became the "Oxford English Dictionary ".He was the son of Sara and
Henry Nelson Coleridge and the grandson of poetSamuel Taylor Coleridge . He earned a double first inClassics andmathematics atBalliol College , Oxford. After graduation, he became abarrister , but, living off a smallannuity , devoted most of his time and energy to linguistics studies. At age 27, as a member of thePhilological Society , he formed a committee withRichard Chenevix Trench and Frederick Furnivall to identify and research words unlisted and undefined in English dictionaries of the period. The efforts of this committee eventually led to the development of the "Oxford English Dictionary". A dedicated editor, he died oftuberculosis at age 30 after completing some fundamental work for the project.Works
* "A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the Thirteenth Century". London: Trubner & Co., 1859.
* "A Dictionary of the First, or Oldest Words in the English Language: from the Semi Saxon Period of A.D. 1250 to 1300. Consisting of An Alphabetical Inventory of Every Word Found in the Printed English Literature of the 13TH Century". London: John Camden Hotten, 1863.References
*Simon Winchester (2003). "The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary". Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860702-4. Pp.50-58.
External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4017/index.html The Genealogy of Coleridge Family and Coleridge links]
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